After Cesar and Lowis Peters and their children had been seized
and carried away, Elijah Graves, a
local tailor, swore out a complaint
against Cesar and his wife and children,
claiming they "are all guilty
of theft" of various articles of clothing belonging to him. Elihu
Marvin, the local justice of the peace,
issued an arrest warrant for Cesar
and Lowis Peters, which gave the Hebron
citizens the right to detain the Peters
family and return them to Hebron before
they could be sent to South Carolina.
A year later, in a deposition taken
out in response to Cesar and Lowis
Peter's application to the Connecticut
General Assembly for emancipation,
Elijah Graves stated that he had sworn
the complaint "'movd
with compasion under the Colour of
Lawfull authority."